


when words fail

by pipecleanerFlowers



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-03-20
Packaged: 2018-03-18 17:48:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3578409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pipecleanerFlowers/pseuds/pipecleanerFlowers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>reira can only watch as castles crumble around him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	when words fail

**Author's Note:**

> okay this is my 50th fic on ao3 wow congratz to me!!
> 
> wrote this while trying to get out of a slump, I hope you enjoy! (no caps bc I'm lazy and aesthetic or something)

reira doesn’t talk much, when their father leaves and their mom has to take over where he left off.

he doesn’t talk, but his eyes go wide at the announcement that they won’t be seeing _him_ anymore, that _he_ won’t be around. his lip quivers. his teddy bear clutches tighter to his chest.

he doesn’t talk. reiji doesn’t either. mom has no words of comfort, just a wry smile on painted lips.

he doesn’t say a word.

\---

reiji’s in charge, lately. mom takes a backseat. he doesn’t see them anymore either, it seems.

\---

the tv is getting annoying, constant reminders that the lds is going through some major changes that reira already knows about, is already living through.

dueling isn’t fun anymore. it never really was.

\---

top in all of his classes, but his mother isn’t proud. not in the way she was about reiji.

\---

there’s no room for error anymore. just duel, just win, nothing else matters.

the deck in reira’s hand, familiar, edges worn, feels alien now. he’s not sure why. just that it’s no longer his own to play with. only to work with.

\---

there’s a shift, and reira can feel it. reiji’s steel beside him, all sharp corners and sharper eyes, watching, observing, controlling everything. he tells reira to watch too.

wide eyes fixate on the screens, not sure what they’re watching for, looking for, some pinpoint detail that reiji will no doubt obsess over for the sake of the lds. for the sake of… standard.

home isn’t maiami anymore, it isn’t his classes, it isn’t his bedroom where the walls are barren and the only company he has is his teddy bear, with it’s fraying threads and fading fur.

\---

there’s a stranger in reiji’s lab, with piercing gold eyes and a permanent scowl, like he disapproves of everything around him with no exceptions. he talks, and it’s like growling, like something is wrong.

constant vigilance, reira realizes quickly, because he keeps mumbling heartland in his sleep, ruri between clenched teeth the nights he crashes on their couch because he doesn’t trust the dorm and he barely trusts reiji, but his stiff leather couch is better than a soft lds bed.

\---

kurosaki.

even his name has unbreachable edges and reira doesn’t talk, never really has, lips shut and eyes wide, and shudders under everyone’s gaze when reiji places his hand on his shoulder as if to say “calm down.”

\---

ruri.

he keeps saying it, echoing in the darkest corners of his subconscious when he sleeps, chapped lips biting and when reira shakes him awake -- like his mother used to, like his mother no longer does -- he lashes.

reira steps back, clutches his teddy bear that much tighter, and a moment passes before recognition dawns in kurosaki’s gold eyes.

he knows where he is.

this isn’t his home.

\---

reira wants to tell him things, because he knows reiji doesn’t tell him anything at all. kurosaki, for all his outbursts, for all his frustration and demands, gets nothing from reiji.

reiji, who’s even tighter-lipped than reira lately about everything. anything.

even words like “calm down.”

\---

he leaves notes.

no one notices when he leaves, where he is, where he’s going, and if they wanted to know they would just check the tracking device on his duel disk. the billions of cameras set up around every nook and cranny or maiami city.

he doesn’t have a posse of bodyguards. he doesn’t need them. not when no one even knows who he is.

\---

he wonders if kurosaki reads them, the answers to all his questions scribbled in bright crayons.

reira still doesn’t know who ruri is, or where she is, or why. but he tries to at least provide something. or he’s not sure what kurosaki, with his piercing gold eyes and permanent scowl and quick temper, will do next without a bone.

\---

kurosaki doesn’t say anything the next time he stays over. he just stares into nothing, focus elsewhere. reira wonders if it’s “heartland.”

when reira shakes him from his nightmares, from his clawing fingers and trembling ribcage. it takes a moment. it always does.

“you,” kurosaki says, growls, voice gravelly and weak and different from the anger and frustration reira is used to him throwing at reiji and everyone else.

reira stares back, wide-eyed, and doesn’t say anything.

something drops and kurosaki softens, and reira almost doesn’t recognize him without his piercing gold eyes and permanent scowl.

a breath he can hear in the encompassing silence, ragged with adrenaline. “you didn’t have to get involved.”

but reira has never had a choice otherwise.

**Author's Note:**

> comment and kudos if you liked~! <3


End file.
